Chief Justice Martha Koome has implemented a judicial order that requires judges to publish their written judgments together with court orders within 24 hours of judicial delivery.
The new initiative targets the longstanding delays experienced by court users until judgments, decrees, summons and orders are released since it has become a major source of frustration.
The Judiciary Chief Registrar Winfridah Mokaya distributed an internal memo to all heads of court stations deputy registrars and seat holders of tribunals. Judicial officers must establish a system which provides immediate access to court decisions according to the internal memorandum. Management at the January 17, 2025, Judiciary Leadership Team session initiated this response.
The Case Tracking System (CTS) now mandates judgment and ruling uploads before case outcome updates become possible. The system upgrade provides litigants along with advocates and different court stakeholders immediate access to court decisions.
All judgments delivered by judges along with judicial officer rulings need to be typewritten for immediate upload to the Judiciary e-filing portal 24 hours after delivery.
Furthermore, the court assistant team must extract and distribute decrees and orders from judgments and rulings to their designated parties during these 24 hours.
According to Registrar Mokaya, the judiciary introduced complete online operations to optimize judicial procedures shorten judicial timelines and improve judicial responsibility. These measures help the judiciary restore faith with the public in its operational execution.
This directive follows other initiatives that focus on improving the judicial system’s operational efficiency. Observations show that the Nigerian judicial system faces delays in securing certified true copies (CTCs) of court judgments which results in obstructed justice delivery. Lawyers have warned about exhaustive documentation procedures for obtaining these documents which extend to multiple months causing delays to the appeal system while simultaneously increasing prison population numbers.
The Kenyan directive implementing digital solutions together with expedited judgment release schedules establishes a framework which other nations should consider for their similar challenges.
The immediate release of written judgments according to Chief Justice Koome’s directive shows progress in reinforcing Kenya’s judicial system’s effectiveness as well as transparency by ensuring timely delivery of justice.
